Zipf's Law

There are approximately three and a half ways for medical professionals and paraprofessionals to volunteer in Ukraine. By “medical professional” I mean most of the specialties that require a bachelor’s degree or higher: for example, doctors, nurses, and physical therapists. By “medical paraprofessional” I mean any specialty that requires less than a bachelor’s degree, such as combat medics and blood bank technicians. Medical professionals have approximately four options. Paraprofessionals have approximately three options. The difference is that professionals have more volunteering options within hospitals in general, and civilian outpatient clinics in particular. Wherever you fit into the hierarchy, here is a good piece of advice: bring copies of your certifications, licensure, driver’s license, passport or visa, training course diplomas, DD 214, vaccination record, and anything else that documents your skill set and your suitability for work in health care. I recommend bringing both scanned and printed copies.

With one exception, I’m going to talk here only about organizations that directly support the army, and only about organizations that are completely or almost entirely focused on medical care. The number of potential organizations expands for those who are open to doing hot extractions of civilians. (“Hot extractions” means evacuation of civilians from the front.)

Medical volunteering opportunities in Ukraine can be separated into four categories, distinguished from each other by proximity to the front. Drones have made “the front” much deeper than it has ever been in the past, and no part of Ukraine is out of the range of ruzzian drones, and the ruzzian army has struck medical facilities and personnel with great eagerness since at least the start of the full-scale invasion in February of 2022. (I would give you statistics, but they would be out of date before I had my post-blog-post cigarette. Suffice it to say that most of the people I know who were killed in Ukraine were in a clearly marked medical or humanitarian vehicle when the ruzzians did it. Yes, that is a war crime. Interesting data point: in other recent wars, attacks on health care have tended to be at their highest at the beginning of the shooting, and then taper off. In contrast, ruzzia has repeatedly surged its numbers of attacks on Ukrainian healthcare facilities and personnel. See Figure 2 of this 2025 paper by Usmany et al., and compare it with Figures 1 (Myanmar) and 3 (Lebanon).)

Here are the four categories that I will refer to. Except for the last one, they all involve working with military units. You will note that these categories also relate to the kind of medical care that you will be rendering. 

1. Kinetic: guaranteed to involve close proximity to violence, with the possibility of needing to shoot back. 
2. Moderately kinetic: typically involves close proximity to violence, including being within range of artillery, bombs, land mines, snipers, missiles, and of course drones, but usually beyond the range of small arms fire (rifles, pistols, and some light machine guns).
3. Hopefully not too kinetic: Within the range of artillery, bombs, missiles, and drones, but beyond the range of small arms fire (except for raids by ruzzian special forces, which does happen).
4. Kinetic only in the case of war crimes: This includes medical facilities everywhere in the country outside of the “yellow zone.”  

Different kinds of medical care happen in the four different categories. So, with our kinetic categories established, let’s talk about the different kinds of medical care and volunteering possibilities that take place in them. For every option, I will give some pluses and minuses.

Kinetic: Combat medic (in the American sense of that word) in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The vast majority of foreigners in the army are in the infantry or reconnaissance. Other possibilities exist, but are REALLY hard to pursue successfully without solid Ukrainian language skills. Within the army, speaking both English and Spanish or Portuguese will open some doors for you that might not be open to others, but you might not necessarily want to walk through those doors. Plus: joining the army removes the visa question, since your military papers are your visa equivalent. Plus: the military is a Ukrainian organization, and Ukrainian groups tend to be the most efficient. Plus: you get a paycheck and food/board/uniforms/kit/medical care. Plus: if you are injured, you will receive good medical care and rehab. Plus: you qualify for Ukrainian citizenship. Minus: I don’t actually have any minuses for this option, personally, but you should read George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia before choosing this option. The book tells of his service as a foreign volunteer fighting the Fascists during the Spanish Civil War. Nothing about the experience of volunteering in somebody else’s army has changed since it was published–in 1938.

Moderately kinetic: join the Hospitalières Medical Battalion. Hospitalières work the entire scope of the evacuation chain–CASEVAC, MEDEVAC, stabilization points, and mobile ICU. (CASEVAC is evacuation of casualties away from the front in a non-medical vehicle. Medical care during CASEVACs is usually limited to hemorrhage control and airway maintenance. MEDEVAC is evacuation of casualties from the front or from the red zone in a medical vehicle. Medical care includes hemorrhage control and airway maintenance, and extends to intravenous access, pain control, and treatment of other injuries. I will explain stabilization points below.) Huge plus: 100% volunteer unit, which is important because volunteers are the best people in the world. Plus: a Ukrainian organization. This is a plus because Ukrainian volunteer groups tend to be more efficient than foreign volunteer groups. Plus: you have choices about what kinds of rotations you do (CASEVAC, MEDEVAC, etc.) and where you do them. The battalion uses a request system that lets you specify a lot about what your next rotation will look like. With some planning, you can also control who you do it with–teams can jointly request specific rotations. Plus: you have a lot of control over the pace of your work. Typical rotations are two to four weeks long. You can do them as often as you want, and some foreign volunteers stay in the field almost constantly. You can also deploy much less often, and take as much time as you need for other volunteering projects in between. Minus: as a foreigner, it can be difficult to figure out how to join the battalion. Minus: because the Hospitalières Medical Battalion is a paramilitary organization, administratively external to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, its funding is dependent on donations, and you should plan to do some fundraising. Food, boarding, uniforms, kit, and medical care are provided. You’re on your own for spending money. 

Hopefully not too kinetic: Join one of the small number of foreign volunteer organizations that work in stabilization points. A stabilization point is the first medical facility that a casualty reaches. It is typically the first time that the casualty will be treated by a doctor. The level of care is above that of a casualty collection point, but below that of a hospital. Stabilization points are military facilities, but in rare instances are staffed by foreign volunteer organizations. As I write this (in September of 2026), I would estimate that there are two or three such stabilization points in Ukraine. Stabilization points are typically within the range of tubed artillery. They do get attacked, both by standoff weapons and (rarely) by special forces infiltrators. Their vehicles are also targeted by the ruzzians, just like they target every other medical vehicle. Off the top of my head, I can think of four people killed and a few badly injured while driving out of or into stabilization points. Plus: you will use your skills more in a stabilization point than in any other environment that I have worked in in Ukraine. CASEVAC and MEDEVAC work is mostly sitting around waiting for a call–the rate of arrival of patients to stabilization points tends to be much higher, and more constant. Plus: you will meet far more Ukrainian medical personnel in a stabilization point than elsewhere, and that is an excellent way to get a variety of perspectives on the nature of the experience. Minus: because a stabilization point is more established and has larger teams than you would have on a CASEVAC or MEDEVAC rotation, it can be more complicated to integrate yourself into the team than on the more kinetic kinds of crews. Minus: in a stabilization point, you are going to see a lot of ruzzian-induced misery, and it will piss you off/horrify you, but you will have absolutely no opportunity to shoot back.  Minus: I’m talking specifically about foreign organizations here. It is worth repeating that Ukrainian organizations tend to run more smoothly than foreign ones. This is not surprising, since Ukrainian organizations do not have language issues, and they know the culture within which they are working. Problems related to foreigners working with Ukrainians are rare. Problems of foreigners working with other foreigners are not necessarily common, but they do happen and can be severe. 

Not kinetic, unless the ruzzians decide to drop a missile on your local train station, shopping center, or maternity hospital: inpatient care, or outpatient care for refugees and/or civilians in liberated areas. There’s a lot of need for this, and I hear that a lot of that need is in the extreme west of the country, where your chances of getting hit by a missile are far lower than your chances of dying of random gun violence in the US. Pluses and minuses: I don’t know of any, never having done civilian medical care in Ukraine. 

Scope of practice

Ukraine has a legal framework in place that allows foreigners to work in a medical capacity. Standards of practice and the level of care that you are legally permitted to provide will be similar to what you are used to in your home country. Do not assume that being in a combat zone means that you can work beyond your level of training and certification!!! (I would add more exclamation points there, but it’s visually unappealing.) 

Final thoughts…

I should add one more thing here… Medical work in a combat zone wore me down in ways that I have not been worn down before, to the point that after four and a half years in Ukraine, I left the medical field and became a gunner in an anti-aircraft unit instead. I continue to do medical logistics work as the director of the American 501(c)3 Ukrainian Humanitarian Resistance. If you would like to support our work, I will put donation information below.

The photo at the top of this post is of me on the way to the southern front in the back of an evacuation vehicle in the summer of 2024.

My name is Kevin Bretonnel Cohen. I serve in the Territorial Defense Forces of Ukraine, and also am the director of the American non-governmental organization Ukrainian Humanitarian Resistance (501(c)3, EIN 99-4530777).  Ukrainian Humanitarian Resistance specializes in supporting platoon-level combat medics, and is also involved in public health and in nursing education. If you would like to support our work in Ukraine, PayPal to kevin.cohen@gmail.com works fine, as does Zelle to 303-916-2417. If you use PayPal, please be sure to choose the Friends and Family option, so that your donation does not get deducted from my Social Security check. However you choose to help, please be sure to add a message with your contact information, so that I can thank you!

All views expressed in this post are my own.

Four and a half years into the ruzzian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, both tactical and consumer goods are far more available in Ukraine than they were at the beginning. There are now high-quality local manufacturers of pretty much any kind of tactical clothing or gear that you will need here. However, be aware that (a) it can be difficult to figure out which brands make what you’re looking for if you don’t speak Ukrainian, and (b) stocks of pretty much everything tend to be limited here. Imported brands are available, but any import will cost you more here than it would in the United States. (I can’t speak to prices in Western Europe, as I don’t know anything about them.)

With that context, here is a list of the clothing that I would recommend you bring for volunteering in Ukraine, whether as a soldier or as a humanitarian worker. My recommendations are based on my own time here (almost four and a half years as of September 2026), as well as that of other long-term volunteers, all of them US military veterans like me.

☐ Clear ballistic glasses (in addition to the ballistic sunglasses that I’m sure I don’t have to tell you to bring). Z87+ is the civilian rating level for impact resistant eye protection. MIL-PRF-31013 is the military equivalent. Z87+ eyeware made for construction workers will work in many circumstances. Everyone knows to bring ballistic sunglasses, but clear glasses can be crucial in unlit buildings (there is highly unlikely to be electricity in buildings from which people need to be evacuated) and at night. (I was thrilled to have mine while trying to catch a very frightened cat who was hiding under a bathtub at the time. Little old lady would not evacuate without him…) Ballistic glasses of any kind are very expensive in Ukraine, and I recommend bringing a spare pair. Ophthalmological surgery materials are in short supply here–much wiser to just wear your fucking eye protection.

☐ Heavy gloves, tactical or otherwise. Hand injuries are actually the thing that I have treated the most here–avoid them if you can. No matter what your job is, you’re likely to be moving large amounts of humanitarian aid, and if you are doing hot extractions, there will be rubble everywhere. Tactical gloves of all models, from lightweight for drone pilots to heavy for outdoor winter mechanical work, are now available in Ukraine, but you may have trouble finding your size in stock. 

☐ Tactical pants. You will want to carry some things on your person at all times, and for that you need a lot of pockets. In addition to lots of pockets, tactical pants have a number of other advantages–I will come back to some of them later in this post. The Ukrainian manufacturer M-TAC makes a tactical jean model with good construction and large cargo pockets.

☐ Definitely do bring obviously American t-shirts, a ballcap with an American flag or similar insignia, and whatever else you wear that marks you as obviously American. It is a big morale boost for the locals, and they will be very nice to you. (Note that many men wear a ballcap and a “tactical beard” here, so don’t rely on those alone to communicate to people that you are an American.) Along those lines: bring as many obviously American morale patches as you can afford. Ukrainian soldiers will give you some pretty cool patches on occasion, and you will want to have a patch to give them in return. Additional note: Don’t bring 100% cotton t-shirts. You will be hanging up your clothes to dry, and 100% cotton t-shirts take way too long to dry.

☐ Kneepads. Whether you’re fighting, doing hot extractions, or teaching TCCC, you’re going to spend a lot of time kneeling on the ground. If you need kneepads but don’t have them, you are going to be a very unhappy volunteer for as long as the experience lasts. Elbow pads might be less necessary–depends on what you’re doing. I recommend tactical pants (see above) in part because they have built-in kneepads. High-quality built-in kneepads (e.g. Crye Precision and Helikon-Tex) are now available for purchase in Ukraine, but like for all imports, you will pay a significantly higher price for them here than in the US.

☐ Shower shoes–not for showering, but to wear in your living quarters. Ukrainians tend to be maniacal about keeping floors clean, and they don’t wear outdoor shoes inside except in public places. I have even seen guys wearing shower shoes in military headquarters! One US military veteran doing hot extractions here with me commented that he had never seen more Crocs in his life than in Ukraine–this is why. Shower shoes can be bought in Ukraine, but not necessarily in the areas where there’s fighting (most stores are closed there).

☐ Hearing protection. Disposable ear plugs will probably suffice. You might not wear them in the field, but if you find yourself on a firing range without them, you’ll wish you’d found room for a couple pairs…

☐ A Camelbak. Bottles of water are currently easy to find except in the areas with the most active fighting, but they are hard to carry. If you decide on the water bottle option, buy a water bottle pouch with MOLLE attachments. (Two, actually!) Personally, I have never used my Camelbak because (a) I feel guilty having it when none of my Ukrainian buddies do, and (b) a lot of the time, there isn’t enough drinking water available to fill one anyway. 

☐ Fireproof/fire-resistant tactical clothing is always a good idea. Shahed drones are almost always used against civilian targets, especially apartment buildings, and they now often carry incendiary charges in the hopes of setting fire to said buildings. That said, I don’t know how to buy fire-resistant tactical clothing without spending phenomenally large amounts of money, and I have exactly no fireproof clothing whatsoever… You may be able to find fireproof clothing meant for work in industrial environments at a much lower cost than fireproof tactical clothing.

☐ Merino wool clothing. See above regarding how long it takes for 100% cotton garments to dry here… You can wear good merino wool clothing for three days with stinking–including socks. At some point, you will almost certainly need to wear your clothes for three days. Merino wool–expensive, but very worth it.

☐ Heavy-duty belt. We might need to drag you to safety by it… One of the reasons that I recommend that you bring tactical pants is that they usually have belt loops that are wide and strong enough to support dragging a casualty to safety with tearing. This is where your heavy-duty belt comes in.

☐ Shirts that you can wear comfortably under body armor. That means a pullover shirt with a smooth front and no front pockets. Rationale: things on the front of your shirt can get pretty uncomfortable when your armor has been pressing on them for a few hours. This is probably obvious to you younger kids, but definitely not to us old guys who grew up wearing Vietnam-era jungle fatigues with those four big, baggy pockets on the front.

☐ Full kit–body armor, a helmet, etc. Be careful about export restrictions, e.g. for night vision goggles. Level IV body armor can be confiscated on the US side, if you are coming from America. The Polish Customs officials are absolute assholes–they even confiscated a buddy’s IFAK (tactical first aid kit). Locally made body armor is now widely available for purchase in Ukraine, but it tends to be very heavy, relative to lighter American makes.

☐ A battle belt is nice to have–who ever has enough space on their plate carrier to clip gloves, ballistic glasses, a Leatherman, a magazine pouch full of snacks and cigarettes…? A shooting belt with MOLLE attachments is not a great replacement. Shooting belts are good for shooting, but a battle belt is much better for long-term support of the weight of everything that some missions require. Shooting belts can also be very uncomfortable when sitting for a long time, and you are going to spend a LOT of time sitting in vehicles while driving across this very large country. Bring a shooting belt if you expect to be carrying a pistol, but know in advance that pistols are unusual in this war, and you are unlikely to be issued one. (On the other hand, pistol magazines are good for carrying flashlights, a Swiss Army knife, and the like.) 

☐ Patches (again), especially ones related to your military career, if you had one. People love to know that Americans support Ukraine, and of course soldiers will want to trade them. 

☐ Shemagh, if you normally wear one. I often give mine away as a present, and then I miss it until I can find another one… If you don’t know what a shemagh is: you don’t need to bring one.

☐ Poncho/poncho liner. The nice thing about bringing a poncho is, if you have one, you probably won’t need it.

A couple of additional points:

• Avoid bulky clothing whenever possible. Depending on what your job is, you might spend a lot of time getting in and out of vehicles, tight spaces, etc.
• Inform yourself about the typical weather during the period when you will be in-country, but don’t assume that you know where you’ll be. Life is unpredictable here, and many foreign volunteers find themselves in multiple regions of the country even during a relatively short stay, with multiple local climates.

The photo at the top of this post is of a t-shirt made for distribution to wounded soldiers.

My name is Kevin Bretonnel Cohen. I serve in the Territorial Defense Forces of Ukraine, and also am the director of the American non-governmental organization Ukrainian Humanitarian Resistance (501(c)3, EIN 99-4530777).  Ukrainian Humanitarian Resistance specializes in supporting platoon-level combat medics, and is also involved in public health and in nursing education. If you would like to support our work in Ukraine, PayPal to kevin.cohen@gmail.com works fine, as does Zelle to 303-916-2417. If you use PayPal, please be sure to choose the Friends and Family option, so that your donation does not get deducted from my Social Security check. However you choose to help, please be sure to add a message with your contact information, so that I can thank you!

All views expressed in this post are my own.

A smarter person than me once said this about war: “Amateurs talk about strategy. Professionals talk about logistics.” America wins wars for two reasons:

1. We never stop training. Never.
2. We have the most highly-developed logistics system in the world.

Ukraine has the most important ingredient for victory. Call it spirit, call it heart, call it motivation: when your family is literally behind you, you will fight very, very hard. Training: we have more and more of it all the time, thanks in large part to nice people like you. Logistics: it’s a fucking mess. We went from having a busy shipping port in Odessa to not having any shipping. We went from a busy commercial air transport system to no air travel at all. We went from a trucking system focused on commercial transport to a trucking system focused on military transport. So, suppose that you own a Ukrainian business that manufactures cardboard boxes. If your shipping clerk was a woman, she probably evacuated with her kids at the beginning of the war. If your delivery guy was a man, the chances are not bad that he joined the army. Your shipping clerk has probably returned to Ukraine by now (the vast majority of refugees have done so already), but your business was screwed up for months, your delivery guy is still in the army, and if you can find another one, he’s going to be driving on roads that have been absolutely ruined by the russists in about 20% of the country while rerouting to avoid destroyed bridges and the like. You still can’t import materials by ship or by air, and the Poles hold up everything at the border. Everything. For a loooong time. And now a tourniquet manufacturer wants to ship out a bunch of tourniquets–but, you don’t have any cardboard boxes to sell him.

The fight continues in large part due to a huge number of Ukrainian and foreign volunteer organizations that work to find things that are needed at the front or by refugees, and then get those things to where they need to go. By now–as I write this, in three days it will be two years since the russists rolled across the northern and southern borders with a lot of tanks and ambitions of colonizing our country–many of those organizations have built informal networks of mutual assistance to get our goals met. So, if you need, say, sterile 4x4s and some tourniquets, you can put the word out on a medical logistics chat group. Tell us what you need, how much of it you need, who needs it, where you need it, and when you need it, and someone will probably send it to you. 

Sounds pretty obvious, right? Often, though, we have to teach people how to help you help them. If you have someone with experience in a military medical system, you make requests in a way that we can probably respond to effectively. If you don’t have that experience, you probably engage in conversations like this:

• Me: I heard you need some medical supplies. What do you need?
• You: We need everything!!
• Me: How much? 
• You: We have nothing at all, we need huge amounts!
• Me: When do you need it?
• You: Yesterday!

Guess what I’ll send you? Nothing. I don’t have everything, I don’t have huge amounts of anything, and I can’t travel backwards in time. Plus, now I am working on the assumption that you don’t know what you’re doing, so I am more likely to want to help you find someone to replace you while you go away and get trained (see the list of reasons that America wins wars, Item #1) than I am to want to send you a bunch of medical supplies that I could be sending to someone who does know what they’re doing.

I would react pretty differently if our conversation went something like this:

• Me: I heard you need some medical supplies. What do you need?
• You: I need IFAKs and combat application tourniquets for ten guys, enough space blankets for half of a motor transport platoon, and two blood pressure cuffs. We’re in the area of Dnipro, and we deploy to the front in a month.

Now I can plan:

1. You go high on my list of things to do and needs to prioritize. You’re not at the front yet, but you’re going to be there soon, so that puts you behind people who are already at the front, but in front of everyone else.
2. I’ll call Colonel Monte, since I know that he usually has IFAKs someplace between the Kyiv and Kharkiv areas at all times, and is very generous. And since you told me that you’re a Motor T unit, I am going to ask for a specific configuration for your IFAK pouch.
3. I know that Dnipro can fill an order for ten combat application tourniquets pretty quickly, and I’ll pay a little bit extra for rush shipping, because no way do I want you deploying without THOSE. Hell, if I have some extra cash, I’ll get you more than you asked for, because for an order of that size, I’ll get a nice discount.
4. I don’t want to ask you for too many details about the size of your unit–OPSEC is important. But, you said you needed space blankets for half of a platoon, and I know that a platoon is roughly forty people, so I know that I need to find twenty.
5. For the blood pressure cuffs, I can wait for my next shipment from the US since I know that you’re not deploying until a month from now. Waiting for that shipment from the US lets me supply you with my favorite blood pressure cuffs–the ones that I can put on in the dark in the back of a moving vehicle. And if my next shipment happens to show up late, I can get you two BP cuffs from Prom.UA. Not my favorites–but, they’ll work just fine.
6. How will I get this stuff to you? You told me that you’re in the general area of Dnipro, so I know that I can ship things via Nova Poshta, and if by chance they move you to Kramatorsk, no problem–I know a girl who will bring them to you on the bus before you move out from there. 

A final pro tip: if I offer you something and ask how many you need, don’t say “how many have you got?” In the best-case scenario, I will figure that you don’t actually know how many you need, in which case I’m going to send you off to find out, and turn my attention to someone else’s request. In the almost-worst-case scenario, I’m going to guess that you don’t want to give them to a military or humanitarian unit, but rather to sell them to a military or humanitarian unit. In that case: fuck you. In the absolute-worst-case scenario, I will wonder if you might not be a russist spy who’s trying to scope out the availability of military medical supplies in Ukraine, and guess what? I’m going to make a quick phone call and let the military intelligence guys answer that question. 

Does America win all of its wars? No. Is our logistical system perfect? Absolutely not, and unlike Ukraine, we’ve been working on our military medical logistics system since the 1860s. And maybe I sound like an unbearably arrogant asshole–I didn’t ask anyone else to read this, so I don’t know. Plus, I probably am an asshole. (You can check with any of my many ex-wives.) But, I did spend a large chunk of my adult life in the American military, and I didn’t just show up in Ukraine yesterday, and I’m at least as busy as you are, and I can tell you from experience: tell any humanitarian worker what you need, how much of it you need, who you need it for, where you need it, and when you need it, and you’re a hell of a lot more likely to get it than if you don’t tell us that. We want to help you–just help us do so.

Our work in Ukraine is possible only because of the generous support of people like you. If you would like to support my work here, PayPal to kevin.cohen@gmail.com works great. So does Zelle to 303-916-2417. If you use PayPal, please pick the “friends and family” option, so that it doesn’t get deducted from my Social Security check. 🙂 And if I don’t know you personally–please, please, please add a message with your contact information, so that I can thank you! 

Слава Україні! My Ukrainian teacher cried when she realized that I know how to say “trench” and “massive hemorrhage,” but not “carrot” or “baby.” Nonetheless: military vocabulary is just as good for morphophonology exercises as anything else. So, here is a list of Ukrainian military nouns, organized by stem-final consonant for your declensional pleasure.

Soft: біно́кль (binoculars), броня́ (armor), в’я́зень (prisoner), вбивця (murderer (female)), вого́нь (fire, as in gunfire or suppressing fire), га́убиця (howitzer), злочинність (crime, criminality), їда́льня (chow hall), ку́ля (bullet (projectile of)), міць (power, force), міше́нь (target), патру́ль (patrol), столи́ця (capital (of a country)), стрілець (shooter)

Hard: полк (regiment), флот (navy), дрон (drone), зонд (probe), льох (root cellar), мир (peace), міст (bridge), пульт (remote control), склеп (root cellar? crypt??), ствол (barrel of firearm), танк (tank), чуб (Cossack hairlock), шнур (cord), цинк (canister), штурм (assault)

Palatals or Р: сабота́ж (sabotage), блінда́ж (improvised trench shelter), ніж (knife), меч (sword), переклада́ч (interpreter), бу́нкер (bunker), затво́р (bolt (of firearm))

Feminine nouns in -ка: сержантка (sergeant (female)), апте́чка (IFAK), арафатка (shemagh), безпе́ка (safety), вибухі́вка (explosive), гвинті́вка (rifle, not automatic), гуманіта́рка (humanitarian aid (slang)), за́сідка (ambush), за́сувка (bolt, bar; fastener), зені́тка (antiaircraft gun), контрро́звідка (counterintelligence), краді́жка (theft, stealing, robbery), кри́шка (cover, lid, e.g. of spring in AK-47), па́стка (trap), пора́зка (defeat), пу́шка (gun, pistol), рі́чка (river), ро́зві́дка (intelligence), розтя́жка (tripwire, booby trap), рукави́чка (glove), рукоя́тка (grip (of firearm)), су́мка (bag, e.g. carried by refugees), терористка (terrorist (female))

Feminine nouns in -ія: а́рмія (army), артиле́рія (artillery), диве́рсія (diversion), диві́зія (division), евакуа́ція (evacuation), мі́сія (mission), пози́ція (position), ра́ція (two-way radio), траєкто́рія (trajectory)

Feminine nouns with other consonants: би́тва (battle), бо́мба (bomb), брига́да (brigade), війна́ (war), гарма́та (cannon), грана́та (grenade), каза́рма (barracks), ка́рта (map), кінно́та (cavalry), мі́на (mine), піхо́та (infantry), пружи́на (spring (device)), раке́та (rocket; missile), ро́та (company), стріляни́на (shooting), фо́рма (uniform), шко́да (damage)

Neuter nouns in o or e: дуло (muzzle (of firearm)), вби́вство (murder), по́нчо (poncho), село́ (village)

Neuter nouns with double consonants: вто́ргнення (invasion), запа́лення (inflammation), запа́морочення (dizziness, lightheadedness), очи́щення (cleaning; clearing), спостере́ження (observation, watching), бомбардува́ння (bombardment), знебо́лювання (analgesia), приці́лювання (aiming, pointing, sighting), порівня́ння (comparison)

Neuter nouns with other double consonants: життя́ (life), сухожи́лля (tendon), прикриття́ (concealment (from enemy view), піднебіння (palate (anatomy)), укриття́ (shelter, e.g. bomb shelter)

Neuter nouns for baby animals: щеня́ (puppy), кошеня́ (kitten), цуценя́ (puppy) It might seem odd to have this category, but (a) no Ukrainian military position is complete without its dog or cat–there is a kitten playing with my rifle’s sling as I write this–and (b) words referring to baby animals have special morphology in Ukrainian.

Masculine nouns in -ій: бій (battle, fight), зло́дій (thief), воді́й (driver)

E or o in the final syllable: to drop, or not to drop? авіано́сець (aircraft carrier), ви́рок (verdict), вого́нь (fire, as in gunfire or suppressing fire), во́рог (enemy), гранатоме́т (RPG, bazooka), доброво́лець (military volunteer), куро́к (trigger), офіце́р (officer), оско́лок (shell fragment), плаве́ць (swimmer), по́рох (gunpowder)

No singular OR no plural: берці (combat boots), кров (blood), вода (water), штани (pants)

Velar shift (also see feminine nouns in -ка above): му́ха (fly; front sight), бреху́ха (liar), завірю́ха (blizzard, snowstorm), риба́ха (fisherwoman? fisherman?) (Yes, I had to allow for a bit of drift out of the military lexical field to find some good examples of this stem type), свекруха (mother-in-law); допомо́га (help, aid), нога́ (leg), обло́га (siege), перемо́га (victory), тривога (alarm, alert; anxiety), підлога (floor), дорога, тринога (tripod), двонога (bipod)

Do you have some cool additions? Please tell us about them in the comments. If you would like to support my work in Ukraine, you can do so via PayPal to kevin.cohen@gmail.com. For tax-deductible options, please contact me directly. Photo: tourniquets purchased with your donations.

When a new volunteer arrives at your unit, you need to be able to get them functional quickly, while ensuring that they have all of the skills and information that they will need to be both effective and safe. The US military has a lot of practice moving people in and out of new jobs quickly and efficiently. It revolves around a “sign-off” sheet. This is a form of checklist. It lists the people that you need to see–pay clerk, medic, postal clerk, etc., etc., etc. As you meet each one, they take care of whatever you need, sign your form, and send you off to the next person. In two days, you have taken care of everything, and you’re ready to start working.

Here is an onboarding sign-off sheet for a new volunteer in Ukraine with a unit doing “hot extractions–” evacuation of civilians from the front line. This is a very common occupation for foreign volunteers. Adapt it to your group’s mission, operating environment, etc. The sign-off process starts with assembling information, and then proceeds to ensuring that the new volunteer can demonstrate the required skills, and familiarity with the equipment for, whatever it is that you’re doing. Do you have suggestions for additions? Please tell us about them in the Comments section!

Personal information

Personal Protective Equipment

Mission protocol

Vehicles

For every vehicle:

Safehouse

Tactical skills